Learning from Lulamae

By Paulette Brown-Hinds, PhD | The Voice
Photos by the Voice
December 3, 2017

Over one hundred friends and community leaders gathered to celebrate the 100th birthday of Inland Southern California icon Dr. Lulamae Clemons. I revisited an article I published after I interviewed her four years ago…she’s a remarkable woman and just as fearless at 100 as she has been her entire life. We can all learn a few lessons from her.

In 1917 America celebrated the second inauguration of Woodrow Wilson as president and despite his campaign slogan, “he kept us out of war” within a month of his second term he asked Congress to join the other world powers in battle.

That same year suffragists were arrested as they picketed the White House in an attempt to pressure President Wilson into signing an amendment giving women the right to vote. Jazz greats Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie and the man who would become the 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy were born; as well as the woman who would become one of Riverside’s most respected citizens, Dr. Lulamae Clemons.